Explained: Xavi-Barcelona Saga - Here's how the Coach-Club relations went 'bad to worse'

Prima facie, it seems like Xavi Hernandez’s days as Barcelona's Head Coach have been counted after he failed to filter the words while speaking about the things in the club. Xavi’s statement ahead of the game against Almeria in La Liga attracted a lot of headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Xavi’s ‘irrelevant to match’ words also raised eyebrows within the Barcelona Board, especially President Joan Laporta. Now, the worsening developments within the Catalan club are making rounds in the media and footballing fraternity like wildfire.

Having said that, here we’ll have a look at this entire turnaround of events and how things went ‘bad to worse’ between Xavi and Barcelona in only the last few months or days, despite two consecutive wins in La Liga.

The beginning of the rough patch

However, it’s not the first time the Xavi and Barca Board have been in the news for the wrong reasons; the one instance in January also caught the eyeballs when the legendary midfielder decided to step down from ‘head coach’ role with the club on June 30. Later, a month ago the Sporting Director Deco and President Joan Laporta initiated a talk with the former Spanish international to stay with the club to consider his contract. Subsequently, it was decided that Xavi will serve as ‘head coach’ till June 30, 2025, the ‘end date’ of his contract.

Interestingly, what took over the headlines was the fact that ‘Laporta was keen to continue with Xavi’. But things are not the same as the head coach had something to say before the Almeria fixture that nobody in the Barca Board would have expected.

The re-ignition of fire by Xavi by ‘economic situation’ remarks about the club

The recent controversy ignited after the statements Xavi came up with, ahead of the La Liga game against Almeria. Xavi’s comments on the club didn’t go down well with Laporta and the other Board officials as well.

“We are going to try to compete against Madrid. I think that the cule must understand that the situation is very difficult. Above all, on an economic level. We have an economic situation that has nothing to do with 25 years ago, we can no longer go out and pick and say ‘I want this one, this one, and that one.’ We are not in the same conditions as other clubs with very advantageous economic situations,” said Xavi during the pre-match press conference.

“The Barcelona fans have to understand it. That does not mean that we do not want to compete, but that is Barca’s situation at the moment. We need stability and time, but we will try to compete,” he added later.

The intensity of these words from the head coach initiated a huge and rapid turnaround of events in the Catalan club. The reports in the RAC1 and SPORT understood that President Laporta was furious with the public statement and addressing the things ‘irrelevant to match’ by the former legendary midfielder.

It brought up a massive change of events within a day or two as the sporting director Deco was also reportedly angry over these remarks made by Xavi. Furthermore, Deco’s Portugal trip also ignited a lot of rumours as a lot of reports learned that it was more than a ‘personal trip’ and he was there to see Conceicao, FC Porto’s Coach.

Now, a few journalists and close sources to the Barcelona board have understood the ‘confirmed’ stance of the Barca Board to sack Xavi from the role of head coach of the club.

Now, the media reports have also learned that the club is looking ahead to rope in one of the three names as a replacement for Xavi. The names include the likes of Rafa Marquez, Hansi Flick, and Sergio Conceicao.

Speaking about the above three potential replacements, Marques is currently serving the youth team of Barcelona while Flick is free from the responsibilities and not active with any team at the moment. Conceicao, at the moment, is fulfilling his responsibilities for FC Porto.

The ‘ineffective’ justification from Xavi for his statements

Things didn’t stop with the pre-match comments of Xavi about the club; after looking at the flak he was receiving from the Board officials, the 44-year-old came up with an almost ‘ineffective’ justification to clarify his previous comments about the club.

“I said what I think, the economic situation is not the best and we are all working very well to improve the situation. We will fight to get titles, nothing changes,” he said after the 2-0 win against Almeria.

“They haven’t said anything to me personally. The sports vice president travelled with us. I only said what is real, that we are going to fight for all the titles, with ambition, but that the situation is not easy. It doesn’t change our reality,” he concluded with a confession.

However, the notable fact within all these developments that why Xavi felt a need to mention the vice president’s game trip with the team. It is also being seen as a damage control from his side as the club president Joan Laporta didn’t travel with the team.

Now, it will be interesting to see what the Barca Board comes out with to wrap up all this and focus on the team’s performance in the ongoing La Liga 2024.